But it all comes down

to coming down.

Standing is more exhausting than walking,

when you walk

you lift the world,

snatches of levity

hoist you before the fall,

red books on a lazy table

students hiding from whom they read,

peeking sometimes through masked eyes,

they know something’s

buried in there. 
David Jones,

George Barker, Thomas Vaughan,

Thomas Browne.

                                      The
alchemy is all

                   in
the waiting, in paying

          attention.

In the athanor of the skull

a deathless peace.

Soul by soul the world escape.